Lawrence O'Daly
By Ron Hayes
OCEAN RIDGE — Lawrence O’Daly made his living selling toys and laughter.
As a producer of television commercials, he promoted Duncan Yo-Yos and Silly Putty.
In the early 1960s, he helped develop and promote G.I. Joe action figures, and in the 1980s he championed both famous and fledgling comedians as creator and producer of cable television’s Evening At The Improv and Comedy On The Road, for which he won an ACE Cable TV Award.
A resident of Ocean Ridge since 1999, Mr. O’Daly died at Bethesda Memorial Hospital on June 8 after a lengthy illness. He was 77.
“Larry was a really one-off personality,” remembers Barbara O’Daly, his wife of 31 years. “I’d never met anyone like him. He was charming, erudite, and a real go-getter and dealmaker. He loved the deal more than the results.”
Mr. O’Daly was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on May 6, 1936, the eldest of 10 children, which earned him the family nickname, “The Chief.”
“Larry used to joke that his mother had 10 Irish-American children, but none became cops, firefighters, priests or nuns, and none of them ever did time,” his wife said.
After service in the U.S. Army, Mr. O’Daly attended City College of New York.
Early jobs as a copy boy and proofreader for The Brooklyn Eagle and Wall Street Journal led to advertising positions at food and automobile magazines, and then on to television advertising, where he worked for the Wham-O, Ideal and Hasbro companies, developing campaigns for their best-known toys.
After donating master copies of the comedy shows to the Museum of Television and to the University of California, the O’Dalys founded Entertainment Properties Ltd., to market DVD versions of the 3,000 acts featured during the two shows’ 14-year run.
“He never really retired,” Barbara O’Daly said.
In addition to his widow, Mr. O’Daly is survived by his daughter, Laura McCann; two sons, Mathew and Terence O’Daly; and a granddaughter, Sara Mary O’Daly.
A memorial service was held at his daughter’s home in Northport, N.Y.
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